1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a method, system and program product for routing requests in a distributed system. Specifically, the present invention routes object requests to the applicable processes based on address information that is provided within object headers that accompany the requests.
2. Background Art
As electronic commerce grows, business are increasingly implementing complex websites to foster growth and profitably. To develop and deploy integrated websites, developers often rely on software products such as WEBSPHERE, which is commercially available from International Business Machines Corp. of Armonk, N.Y. Although products such as WEBSPHERE are powerful tools in providing complete electronic business solutions to customers, they are generally distributed, multi-process systems. This can complicate its interaction with other popular systems such as JAVA MANAGEMENT EXTENSIONS (JMX). Specifically, JMX is a package addition to the Java 2 Platform, standard edition (J2SE) that provides management and monitoring services for web-based solutions. Unfortunately, the JMX Java Management Framework specification does not include provisions for distributing requests (e.g., JAVA object management requests) from one process (e.g., Java Virtual machine) to another. Thus, when dealing with a distributed system where several processes can reside over one or more nodes, the routing of such requests can become complicated.
For example, if an object management request bound for target process “A” within target node “2” is first received on node “1,” there is currently no efficient way to route the request to target process “A” within target node “2.” Under one approach, a global registry is maintained that tracks all objects and requests. However, when a management request is made corresponding to a particular object, the registry must be consulted to obtain the object's address information. Such a requirement not only requires constant updating of the global registry, but is also highly inefficient.
In view of the foregoing, there exists a need for a method, system and program product for routing requests in a distributed system. Specifically, a need exists for address information to accompany requests (e.g., object management requests) for efficient routing to the target destination. Still yet, a need exists for the address information to be included in an object header that corresponds to the object that is the target of the request. A further need exists for the address information to be inserted into the object header as the object is being created, or at least before the object is implemented.